Disbursement of public investment capital: Assign specific responsibility for delay

Economist Ngo Tri Long

At present, in many localities there is still a sluggish state in the disbursement of public investment capital. How do you view this situation?

Public investment plays an important role in economic growth. However, in recent times, there are reasons why public investment projects have been delayed due to the high price of steel and construction materials and materials. If the Government, ministries, branches and localities do not have timely and appropriate policies and solutions, it will be difficult to realize the economic growth target set by the National Assembly.

Besides objective factors such as raw material price increases, it is also necessary to clearly recognize the subjective cause, which is the weakness in implementation from many investors and contractors implementing projects. In addition, the coordination in handling problems between ministries and branches is still limit ed.

In the current situation, most of the public investment capital is not single-source capital, but must be mobilized from many sources, including loans. Therefore, if the disbursement is delayed, the interest rate will increase that day, causing economic damage and wasting social wealth. This is the most direct and recognizable consequence in my opinion.

For the macro-economy, slow capital disbursement affects the economic growth rate; "thickening" the burden of public debt; causing waste and loss of economic resources. To offset the overspending, the Government has to use other tools such as borrowing money domestically, putting pressure on prices to increase, leading to inflation and many other problems.

In particular, the situation of "people can't eat all, people can't get out" have lost opportunities for localities and units that have the capacity to absorb capital and use capital effectively, as well as affect discipline and regulations of the State.

Nearly half a year has passed, the Government is very thorough in directing and administering the allocation and disbursement of capital. In your opinion, what practical solutions are needed to be able to fulfill the planned goals of 2022?

In my opinion, it is necessary to strengthen supervision and scrutiny with regulations on investment management to gradually overcome shortcomings, improve the responsibility and capacity of organizations and individuals involved in this activity and to create synchronous change. If any project cannot spend capital, it is necessary to resolutely transfer capital to another project capable of absorbing and disbursing to save time and make the most of that capital.

In addition, it is necessary to take into account the efficiency of investment projects, it is not possible to "just like" and then "soak", but not implement. It is necessary to clearly recognize the subjective reasons leading to the slow disbursement of public investment capital. Accordingly, it is necessary to assign specific responsibilities to the parties. First is ministries and branches accurately estimating when asking for finance for projects. Next is project appraisal and approval. It is clear that when a project is approved for capital, the parties have calculated all the implementation and feasibility plans. If the disbursement is delayed due to subjective reasons, the responsibilities of the leaders, especially the leaders, must be clearly indicated in a timely manner. The slow disbursement is largely due to the capacity of the apparatus from the management agency, the investor to the contractor not to meet the job requirements, so this is a factor that needs to be improved in the coming time.

In order to promote the disbursement of public investment effectively and quickly, the State needs to inspect, examine and supervise, and have sanctions to strictly punish individuals and organizations that cause stagnation or delay in disbursement. But, promoting public investment for economic growth is not the entire costs and must strictly comply with the Law on Public Investment. Disbursement must be effective to avoid taking advantage of this opportunity to cause losses of state budget money.